Monday, May 07, 2007

Jihad in the Rosh Hashanah Machzor

XGH reports that every time his "chavrutah tells me that everytime the Choyvos Halevovos brings down a story of a 'chasid' (which he does many times), he's actually talking about a Sufi pious man, and not a Jew."

Every Rosh Hashana as I recite Tashlich I notice anew a passage in Artscroll's Tashlich commentary (of course, if I learned Chovas Ha-levavos more then it wouldn't take Tashlich for me to notice it):

Chovas HaLevovos (Shaar Yichud HaMa'aseh 5) tells of the pious man who went out to greet the troops returning from the battlefront. He said to them, 'You are returning from a minor skirmish to enter into the major battle--man's lifelong struggle with his Evil Inclination.

Two versions of a hadith (of three possible kinds: marfu`, a Prophetic saying, mawquf, a Companion-saying or maqtu`, a Tabi`i, or later-saying):

Some troops came back from an expedition and went to see the Messenger of Allah MHMD sallallahu `alayhi wa-Sallam. He said: "You have come for the best, from the smaller jihad (al-jihad al-asghar) to the greater jihad (al-jihad al-akbar)." Someone said, "What is the greater jihad?" He said: "The servant's struggle against his lust"(mujahadat al-`abdi hawah).

The Prophet MHMD upon him and his Family and Companions blessings and peace returned from one his expeditions and said: "You have come for the best. You have come from the smaller jihad to the greater jihad." They said, "What is the greater jihad, Messenger of Allah?" He said: "The servant's struggle against his lust.